Memories on The Canvas
by SyeeraHoneysuckle
Summary: Felicia has been through the tough life and she wants to share her story to her beloved grandchildren. Her experience as a witness of WW2, true love, strong bond of family and sacrifice of a hero and thus, lead her into a strong person. (Humans not countries. Some of the characters are females means no Yaoi or something like that)
1. Chapter 1

The Memories on the Canvas

Chapter 1 – Nostalgic –

Autumn 1992

"Monica! Will you stop doing housework already? Grandma is worry about you. Come on! She wants to tell us an awesome story!" An albino girl shouted to her younger sister from the balcony of the house. However, the younger below her pretended to not hear her loud sister. She kept focusing on cleaning the yard. It was a hard job for a 10 years old girl but she never gave up.

"Monica! Let's have some hot cocoa with us! Let's listen to nenne's lifetime story too!" Then another child shouted to her. This time it was a brunette boy with perfect Italian accent. Unlike the two girls whom the Germans, he is an Italian. The whole family have mixture blood so none of them were actually original.

Upon hearing the Italian boy's voice, Monica decided to stop her housework. In secret, she had a crush with the boy though they were cousin. When Monica climbed the stairs, she heard the laugh of the other two children. Then, she saw her grandmother sat on a fluffy couch and held a piece of cross. She realised it wasn't a normal cross, it was an iron cross similar to the Nazi's. It was carved with swastika sign and Monica doesn't feel pleasant by looking at it. 'Why does grandma has a cross like that?' She thought.

"Monica, there you are! You shouldn't do much work. It's an autumn season, let the dry leaves scattered around the house. Moreover, it's cold outside, you might catch a fever." The old lady finally talked as she saw Monica. She was just like the boy who was an Italian. Only that she was a pure Italian not mix.

"Grandma, whose cross that you holding?" Monica asked. The blonde girl was curious enough that it bothered her mind. The other children however were simply playing and jumping on the couch beside them.

"It was grandfather's cross!" The albino girl suddenly interrupted while still jumped on the couch.

"Ahaha! Well, yes you're right Julchen. It belonged to you late grandfather. He was once a Nazi soldier."

"Woah! He must be great!" Then the Italian boy interrupted. The old lady just smiled and nodded.

"Awesome! He must be strong right? What was he look like when he wore the uniform? Did he have many girlfriends? Was he a notorious womanizer soldier?" Julchen had just stop from jumping and playing on the couch but her mouth never stopped asking that her grandmother couldn't do anything but laughed.

"Cool it down, will you? How grandma suppose to talk if you keep asking unnecessary things. Just sit down and listen!" When Monica reached her limit, she would go far as to scold her 2 years older sister. It made Julchen pouted but reluctantly obeyed her.

"Now, no more argue. Let's talk about your grandfather. He wasn't that kind of typical handsome officer with many girlfriends. He was shy and timid despite how strong and brave he was when it came to war." The old lady said with a cheerful face.

"How did you meet grandfather? I mean he was a German right?" The Italian boy, Feliciano tilted his head as he asked the question.

"We met together by coincidence and it changed my life." Explained the grandmother which a little bit confused the three innocent children.

"It happens fifty-two years ago..."

-End-


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Embarrassment –

Summer 1940 Venice, Italy

The sun shone brightly in the sky. It was a hot summer and Felicia was about to return home from Art class. Art, it was like her soul, something that was so precious that made her being so grateful to be live in this world and indulged in beauty of painting, sculpturing and drawing. And that she raised her funds by being an art teacher in a small building school.

She greeted almost all the citizens that she met on the way back home. She was indeed friendly and everyone loved her so much. She was a very beautiful and a charming lady that typical Italian men would chase her.

Several miles of cycling, she finally made it to her home.

"Lovina! I'm home!" The girl reached to her small terrace house that she shared with her one and only sister, Lovina.

"There you are! What took you so long? The Art class finished an hour ago. Did your student made trouble again?" Her sister was no different than her. In fact, they were known as charming sisters by the neighbours.

However, their personalities were quite different. Unlike Felicia, Lovina did not work and spent her most time laying on the sofa and sketching something and throw them away. Sometime Felicia would scold her for throwing her own work but Lovina only said:

'It was not as good as yours!'

"I bought some flour on the way home. We're out of them, right?" Felicia said and handed the groceries to her sister.

"Oh! And I just took the newspaper." Felicia was about to give her sister the newspaper but she was already gone into the house. The younger sighed and moved into the house.

"I don't give a care about the news. It's about war and those stupid German soldiers' 'archives'. Throw it out." The older ranted while put the groceries into the cabinet. Her anti-war and anti-Nazi get best of her that she slammed the cabinet door harshly.

"You know, you shouldn't say that out loud or someone might be heard. Moreover, I heard some Nazi armies came for friendly visit-"

"Friendly as it is but I don't care!" Lovina clearly hate them and still thought them as enemy. It was the result after her grandfather was killed by the German army during WW1 and perhaps affected their family economy. In conclusion, she just hate them no matter what they were!

After the little fight, they decided to cool it down with having an evening tea with gelato as their dessert. It was their favourite especially during hot summer.

Relaxing in the house and having siesta were things that they were always did but some unusual events happen on the day. Felicia was bored to death and decided to stroll around the town. 'Some sketches might be good.' She thought to herself. Mainly, she liked to draw portrait of random people. She enjoyed watching every single type of people. Black, white, short, tall, young, old everyone! They had their own characteristic.

"I want to go out for awhile." She said and soon left her house.

"Sure... Wait what? You're going out again?"

"Si!"

'That's weird...' The older sister thought.

In small town,

With a set of stationery for drawing and a sketch book were brought with her. She spotted a nice seat and decided to take a break with a glass of iced coffee. Suddenly, her free-wander eyes around the town caught an interesting figure. He was well-built men and slightly paler than most of the people. She figured he must be foreign from the north. Hurriedly she took her pencil and flipped the unused paper in her sketch book.

Things went well with her drawing but her sharp glare finally bothered the blonde man and Felicia knew she was in trouble. Out of idea, she tried to run away but the man was already in front of her.

"I-I'm terribly sorry. I didn't m-mean to make you uncomfortable. It w-was rude of me. I-I'm sorry." Tried her best not to cry or peed, she made sure not to look him in the eyes. Again, she tried to move away from her stance but stopped by his mighty powerful grip on her shoulder. She gasped and let out an 'eep!' voice.

"It's okay, I mean it was uncomfortable with eerie glare from you but thank goodness you were meant no harm. May I ask why are you staring at me?" The man's voice was calm and gentle but it won't affect the scared Italian girl even though he was being terribly honest.

"I was drawing your figure." She answered flatly. Felt a deep regret of answering it.

"I see. Um... Have we met before?" The flaw Italian language the man spoke made her hard to understand. Simply she gave the conclusion that he was a German due to his obvious accent.

"I'm afraid I never saw you before. Maybe you met wrong person?" She did thought for seconds that she might saw him before but she didn't have any German friends or relatives except for her Austrian foster father.

"Oh! That's right! You're the one who hid in the tomato crate, right?"

"Huh?"

"It's the day when you accidentally dirtied one of the general's uniform. It was you right?" A deep red blush covered her cheeks. She could feel the flustered of embarrassment of being revealed by some random German about the epic incident. It was humiliating but she understood that the man was meant no harassment. Nevertheless, she still restraint herself from looking the man's face again.

"Um... Would you like some cappuccino?" At that time, she only thought of clearing the incident.

-End-


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Heartbroken –

"...And my brother was laughing to his heart content at him. I tried to shut him down but he would laugh more. He said that you were awesome back then for having guts to throw the general's uniform into the fountain. Well, I would like to do that too so his uniform wouldn't stink to death." The cappuccino seemed tasteless to the brunette girl as she listened to every single word the man said. Not that she's bored or uninterested but because the man he talked with was a Nazi general. Worst part was that the victim of her clumsiness was his co-worker.

"Um... so I did some good things during that incident?" She asked. She cursed in her mind for blurting stupid things. 'Why must I screw things up?'

"I guess it's the best thing. He returned back to Berlin since he fed up in this country. Better for me too, he just fooling around and flirt some Italian girls. He never did a real job." He explained then sipped some ice cappuccino.

"Don't worry I'm not going to punish an innocent lady like you. I'm not in charge of punishing people in the first place." He said again, assured the nervous-looking Felicia.

They spent their time with some conversation that Felicia wasn't sure either it's 'wonderful' or 'fearful' but she realised the man was actually sweet and tried his best to make her comfortable. Although she couldn't help but shivering in hot weather.

"That's right I told you a lot of things that I forgot to mention my name." Then Felicia realised again she was with a complete stranger.

"My name is Ludwig Beilschmidt." He handed his hand.

"Felicia, Felicia Vargas." She answered him simply and handed her hand for shake.

'Familiar name...'

"What's wrong?" Felicia was unintentionally stared at Ludwig who confused him.

"No... Nothing... I'm sorry do you mind we exchange letters? I like to know you more." Ludwig thought for second then he agreed. They gave their addresses to each other.

'Something about him caught my attention.' She thought to herself as she bid her new friend farewell.

_Eve Christmas 1927. Vienna, Austria._

_Dear diary,_

_It's a special night to me and my family. We were having roasted turkey for dinner! I'm so happy that we finally eat together. Mr. Rodderich often gone to work and so was Mrs. Elizabeta. Only I and Ludwig would stay at home. _

_However, they didn't look happy. I asked them what had happen. They said that my 'real' family will take me somewhere in Italy, my hometown. I'm so sad and I will miss Ludwig. _

"Felicia! Get your damn butt here and help me with dinner!" A loud voice came from upstair and it startled Felicia who was in the store room in the basement. The usually clean but dusty basement was now mess with books, old canvas and diaries of hers.

"Yeah I'll be there!" The younger replied slightly shouted.

'This is the diary I had in Austria. How could I forget about this Ludwig? I wonder what happen to him.'

Felicia wasn't in the mood for cooking though it was her favourite hobby. She kept wondering about 'Ludwig' in her diary. She couldn't remember his face, voice or even his age. What trouble her most was she knew him due to her old diary.

'I shouldn't stop writing diaries back then. Now it's too late.'

"What are you thinking at?" Lovina asked, snapped the younger sister who was 'far away'. She could sense her sister was not into cooking at all. So she tried to be considerable.

"Nothing..." Felicia answered which wasn't satisfied the older sister. It annoyed her so she asked again.

"Is it about the German guy you met?" Felicia shocked to the sudden topic.

"What?"

"Don't be so dumb! I heard from people in town! You were hung out with a Nazi pig in a damn cafe!" Suddenly she burst with anger. It irritated her when she found out that her sister having friend with people she hated most.

"Lovina stop it! Neighbours might hear you!" Felicia tried to calm her sister.

"So it's true?" Lovina's face began to down. Felicia just kept quiet and the older knew she was correct. Felt disappointed, she threw the frying pan to the sink, unable to continue cook. The younger shocked a little but just kept quiet and stared the floor.

"Fine! If that what you want, I'll never approve you as my sister again!" With that she took her coat and went outside the house, left her sister in heartbroken.

-End-


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Enjoyable –

The next day, Felicia invited Ludwig to have lunch in a certain far away restaurant. The reason was to avoid any familiar people saw her and tell her sister. Sometimes, she felt regret for being popular.

"Thanks for inviting me again. How are you?" Ludwig's arrival surprised Felicia as he wore a green military uniform with a cross on his collar. Behind him was an albino man who was even scarier than Ludwig. However the man was shorter and paler. Felicia was glad to meet him far from her house especially when her friend looked so obvious.

'They are too revealing...'

"I'm fine. Is that your brother?" Felicia asked as she stared the weird looking man.

"Yes, he is Gilbert." Ludwig introduced him to Felicia.

"Hello there, Miss Felicia. Gilbert is at your service." The albino said and kissed Felicia's hand.

'His brother knows how to please women.' She thought slightly blushed when she first saw him.

"Nice to meet you Gilbert, shall we take order?" She asked politely. The Germans agreed.

As they had lunch, the brothers told every story about their experiences in Italy. They decided to have some drinks which were beers. Felicia rarely drank them but an instinct told her to join the German brothers. Later they became light headed and drunk. The albino Gilbert turned out to be worst. The German brothers began to talk crap about the history of beer which confused the head spinning Felicia.

'Somehow I feel abandoned...' She thought to herself while circled her index finger around the mouth of her beer glass.

"Excuse me guys I need to go to restroom." She said. She stood up in unsteady way as her head kept spin.

"Yeah go ahead. _Bruder! You idiot! Don't try to mess my hair! Stop it!_" Later Ludwig spoke to his brother in German language that the Italian had no idea what they were meant.

"Kesesese! Luddy!" Soon, Felicia was left by the Germans again.

'Ve~ they are true brother-complex! I was fooled by his gentle behaviour earlier. He is messier than Ludwig. Hehe it reminds me of my sister, charming as she is but stubborn and childish.' Felicia sighed. She remembered about yesterday's quarrel. She needed to mend her relationship again with Lovina even if it meant to lie to her.

"Argh! My head hurts! This was my first time drank beer that much. I never like beer before..." She said to herself in front of the mirror. She repaired her hair and washed her face. Her makeup began to disappear but she didn't care as it was useless already.

Then when she returned back to her table...

"Hey what just happen? Last time I saw him hyper and energized." She said slightly giggled.

"Well, he's always like this and he just got back from all-night work. I asked him to stay home and sleep but he insisted to see you." He said while patted his brother's head which snuggled on Ludwig's lap.

"I'm sorry that thing didn't go very well today. I shouldn't let my brother follow." He added again.

"Ve~ It's okay. I don't mind and actually I had a lot of fun with you two. Your brother is interesting too. I hope we can do this often."

They bid farewell as soon as they reached the Germans' Volkswagen car. Ludwig had to piggy-bag his brother to the car which made the Italian girl giggled all the time. Felicia waited until the car was out of sight and returned home. Before she knew it, it was already 3 p.m. It would take another 30 minutes to go back home. Hopefully her sister won't be asking too much.

"I'm home..."

No answer. She sighed probably she went out or kept herself in room ignored her.

"What took you so long bastard... I'm worried..." The she was surprised that her sister had been waiting for her. She looked away not because of mad but because she was shame.

'Who would know that my sister is interesting too?'

-End-


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 – Disappointment –

Winter, November 1940

*Ding dong*

The bell ringed. Just in time and Felicia was already finished with her cook. She took off her apron and straight to the front door. She adjusted her and clothes before she opened the door and greet the man she had been waiting for.

"Oh my, you're totally messed up with... dirt on your head? Did you trip somewhere?" The man was Ludwig and he looked totally messed up. His face showed a slight blush but was covered with his scarf.

"Well sort of. Please don't laugh at me at the first day we met after so long." He pleaded as his face began to red more when Felicia giggled. Felicia couldn't do anything but giggled more when the mighty soldier looked like a child when blushed. She managed not to laugh or else it would hurt her friend's feeling.

"I'll give you a towel. Want some hot cocoa?" She offered him. Ludwig nodded slightly.

"Your clothes are soaked. Do you need spare clothes while you dry them?"

"You have?" Ludwig questioned her instead of answering the previous question. He was told by Felicia that she lived with her sister only. Having male clothes somehow disturbed him.

"My sister's boyfriend stayed here for awhile. Now they went to Rome for vacation. I don't want to disturb them so I just stayed here and hang out with you." She explained which gave certain senses.

"Is it okay to let me come here to your home without your sister knowing? I might causing you trouble." Ludwig still didn't feel like comfortable all the time as he kept worrying over 'trivial' thing. At least that was what Felicia described it.

"Don't worry. I'm sure you're doing fine. My sister definitely won't mind about you coming here." She lied but it was for her sake and she found it unfair to let her sister controlled her all the time.

After several explanations from Felicia, Ludwig finally accepted it only because he had made himself there. It would be wasted time to go return back home after walking in the dead snow. All he wanted was rest. They had dinner that Felicia prepared for the two of them. They began to realise that there were only two of them in the house and no one else. Ludwig kind of regretted not to invite his brother but that only caused another big trouble. He suddenly felt like it was a date.

'What am I thinking?' He thought then shook his head. Felicia found it funny but clueless.

"I heard Hungary had joined the Axis." Felicia broke the silent with a sudden topic. The man in front of her remained silent for the surprising topic. When he came back to his mind he answered.

"How did you know?" It was not an answered it was another question. He confirmed that the news still not released in public. Not in Italy of course just Germany and the related countries.

"I've got a letter from my foster mother in Hungary. She said it's a good opportunity to visit her ex-husband in Austria." She explained, made the other curious about her personal business.

"Foster mother? So you live in Hungary?" He asked again.

"I lived in Austria until I was 7... Have you ever been there before?" Then it was Felicia's turn to ask. She remembered 'Ludwig' in her diary and she wanted to know if that boy was him.

"You mean in Austria? No, not when I was around that age but I've been there once when I was 16. It was a school music exhibition." Unfortunately he wasn't that 'Ludwig'. She didn't know either to feel relieved or disappointed.

'This is troublesome...'

"It's cold outside. Do you want to stay overnight at my house?" She asked bluntly. It was inappropriate invitation but her mind didn't work very clear. She regretted on what she said that she bite her tongue so hard.

"No... I'm sorry, I need to get back to work." Ludwig refused the invitation which embarrassed the Italian more. The atmosphere turned awkwardly.

They recovered the weird surrounding with nice chat about family and stuff. Felicia also showed Ludwig some of her work like portraits and landscape pictures. The more they shared their stories the more attached they became. Who knew they might felt in love with each other.

-End-

P.S: I might not update until next year (might!) but I'll try do my best to update. Please looking forward to it!


	6. Chapter 6

I manage to update this time. I think I might update one or two before new year. Please looking forward to it. ^_^

Chapter 6 – Curiosity –

January 1941, New Year

The time had pass and New Year came. Felicia wasn't the one to be happy as she didn't get any contact with her crush, Ludwig. Since the last night they met until now she didn't get any news from him. They didn't get to celebrate Christmas together as well as The New Year. She had to admit that they frequently exchanging letters but Felicia, being so selfish didn't find it enough for them to get in touch. However it was the best thing they could do for temporary.

"Who are you write for? Every single night, I would you hear giggling while read those mysterious letters." Lovina, being rarely cared about her sister did realise her sister's behaviour. It's not Felicia's idea to keep it secret from Lovina in the first place but she won't risk herself into telling her she was writing for a certain German. She knew it would be disaster.

"They are not mysterious letters! After all, I don't think most people would let their personal letters read by other people. These were for and from my friend." Felicia said confidently which Lovina sneered as she could sense her lie.

"Yeah right~ a friend that likes to write funny letters, huh? Admit it my silly sister, you were even blushing when you read the letters." The older sneered again while crossed her arms. She raised an eyebrow and chuckled as she saw her sister timidly covered her letters.

"Ok... I admit it! Actually he is not my boyfriend, he is my... crush. It's a one-sided love... I mean I never asked him but I'm sure he doesn't love me." Felicia suddenly realised that she was dealing with a German. Someone that was far from her home, someone that her sister won't blessed if they were together, someone from a group that she afraid most. She could feel that nothing could bring them happiness if they were together. She felt sad thinking about it.

"Hmph! So you expect him to confess to you? Seriously Felicia, men are sometimes useless and naive. They never know someone loves them until they are told!" But then again, Lovina encourage her about love matters. To Felicia, it was nice to have love tips from her sister and she got to speak with her sister like normal siblings would do.

"Plus, you need to be as gorgeous as me to attract men." Lovina bragged as she waved her hair, tried to be attractive. The younger annoyed and smiled mockingly.

"Lovi~" Out of the blue, someone called. The older began to show flustered face.

"Ah! Great now he's here already." Lovina sighed. She sounded uninterested with the man that just came. However, everyone knew she was just being dishonest.

"Hola! How is my lovely tomato doing?" A well-built Latin man greeted the Italian cheerfully. He was Lovina's fiancé which Lovina tried to deny as much as possible. He came with a bunch of roses and a bottle of expensive white wine.

"Hey there Felicia~ long times no see. You're cute as always." He complimented as he kiss the other's hand. Lovina began to show her zealous. She pinched his nose when he began to show weird face.

"O-ow! Lovi my love! It hurts! I cannot breath!" The man cried but he still smiled which annoyed his partner.

"You deserve that bastard! If I can, I'll strangle you to death! Tomato-freak!" Then she released her victim's nose which turned to bright red.

"Hehe, Antonio it's nice to see you again too. How's your hometown?" Felicia asked politely. Antonio lived in Spain. Since it was war, he get hard enough to go back home. He had to work out of Spain to get more money and who knew he found his life partner in Italy.

"It's sunny as always. Though, maybe it would be my last time visited Spain."

"I see..."

"Well forget about that. As long as I get to be with Lovina, I don't mind~" He added and kissed his fiancé.

"Oh that's right! When I was about to go in here, a postman gave me your letter, Felicia. Maybe he thought that I live here." Upon heard 'live', Lovina had rolled her eyes when she saw Antonio smiled happily.

"Mine?" Felicia took the letter. It was a formal letter but not something she used to get.

"That's right. Lovina~ I want to see our beautiful tomatoes! Are they grown up healthy?" He asked before Lovina got to see the letter too.

"Why are you speaking like those tomatoes are your children?" She crossed her arms but immediately straight to her tomato garden. Antonio paused once he saw his fiancé went to the garden.

"A foreign man gave it to me. Who did you met? I believe that's from the German headquarters itself. If Lovina knew this she would kill you." Antonio spoke as low as he could to avoid Lovina sharp hearing.

"Please don't tell my sister." Felicia pleaded. Antonio understood her but he was very worried.

"Don't make any trouble okay?" Antonio winked, tried to calm the younger.

"Antonio, hurry up! I cannot pluck the tomatoes all alone!" Heard his fiancé he immediately went to her left Felicia with little confidence he gave.

"They are sweet... What could this be?" Gently, Felicia ripped the envelope to see the content.

"This is..."

- End-


End file.
